Wednesday, February 1, 2017

5 Tips for Making Handmade Kids Valentine Cards

I absolutely loved trading Valentine cards as a child, from decorating a shoe box to take to school, to bringing it home full of Valentines from classmates. Now that my daughters are school age, I get to relive that special tradition through their eyes! I partnered with Joules, a bright and colorful UK-based clothing company, for this fun post - an afternoon spent with Stella and Hazel making homemade Valentines for their classmates!

When it comes to Valentine cards, I don't think there is anything better than homemade, especially when made by a crafty 5 and 7 year old! Making a card for each friend is a great way to have your kids slow down a little bit and put thought into what each person would like. Read on to see our tips for making your own homemade valentine cards this year, as well as some fun clothes from Joules, perfect for Valentine's Day or year round. They are offering a 20% off code for Design Improvised readers - just enter "HEARTDAY" at checkout!

For our Valentine craft session, I cleared off the table in my craft room, laid out any pink, red, and heart shaped craft supply I could find, and then just let the girls do their thing. I find that if you give kids just a little direction to get started, they do best when they have free creative license! Here are our tips for making homemade Valentine cards:

Tips for Making Handmade Kids Valentines

1. Start with a heart

Heart cutouts are readily available in craft stores at this time of year and make a great card base. You can typically find a pack of 5 inch foam hearts or cardboard hearts that will work great. We even found hearts at Hobby Lobby that are sticky on one side so you don't need glue!

2. Head to the dollar store

You don't have to spend a lot of money to get a wide variety of fun embellishments for your Valentines. The dollar store is a great source for heart doilies, stickers, and jewels. Here are some of my favorites (with Amazon affiliate links, in case you prefer to avoid the store all together!)

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Valentines can get messy quickly if there is a lot of glue or glitter involved. Avoid the clean up and drying time by selecting embellishments with adhesive backing like stickers and adhesive jewels.

4. More is more!

You really can't go wrong with your Valentines. I love how Hazel and Stella overloaded their hearts with decorations, and no two Valentines are alike!

On the backside of each heart Stella and Hazel wrote who the Valentine was for. You can also tape a piece of candy to the back!

5. Space them out

If your child has 20 kids in his or her class like Stella does, you can avoid burnout by not trying to tackle them all at once the night before the class party! I have been keeping the supplies out on Stella and Hazel's play table the past week so they can do a few Valentines at a time after school.

6. Wear Cute Clothes

Just kidding - this is not a required step, but it certainly made our crafting session more fun! ;) If you are not familiar with Joules, they offer bright, colorful, and well-made clothes for the entire family, and are especially known for their floral prints and cheery patterned rain boots! They have the sweetest dresses for girls like this black and white trapeze dress that Stella is wearing (it even comes with a fluffy heart!):

I got in on the fun too and tried out one of Joules' pretty floral tops and black skinny jeans, which are so comfy! Overall I was impressed with their quality, and their bright colors and fun floral prints are right up my alley.

We had such a fun afternoon getting crafty together, and I of course love any excuse to spend time in my craft room! Don't miss my tutorials for this canvas heart art and my pom-pom Valentine box if you need a fun idea for your child's class Valentine box.

The girls are excited to pack up their backpacks with all the Valentines in a couple weeks and trade them with their friends!

A special Valentine treat for Design Improvised readers: head to Joules and enter promo code "HEARTDAY"to get 20% off your purchase!

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